Not something to do in the rain

Okay, so when we were in Provincetown (on the tip of Cape Cod), we had to walk the Provincetown breakwater -- it's just one of those things. It's a lot longer than the little cute one in Rockport, but luckily its rocks are a lot more walkable. There are a few spots where some scrambling is in order, and I wouldn't want to make this trek if the rocks were slick with rain. Or at high tide, for that matter.


The walk on the way out kinda drained me, mainly because I know my sense of balance isn't exactly stellar, so a lot of mental energy goes into concentrating on what I'm doing so I don't fall and crack my head open. The walk back was a lot easier and a lot more fun.

We did this walk too late in the day to make the slog out to the lighthouses. But the view from here was great anyway.


Time to start the 40-minute-long walk back!


I was also motivated by the idea of having dinner when we got back!!

Cape Cod lighthouses

I'd never been inside a lighthouse before this trip, but the nearby Nauset Lighthouse offered free guided tours, so we got to go inside. This one wasn't as tall as others I've seen along the coast of Maine, but it was still pretty cool.

It was a good activity for a greyish, slightly drizzly day, too. The windows were open and we could get a nice sea breeze in there.


There was a small hole in the floor of the top of the lighthouse that was perfect for capturing the view down the spiral staircase.


We also went to see the Three Sisters of Nauset, which were older (but restored) even smaller lighthouses that used to be the main lighthouses along the coast there. The history is a bit crazy, with lighthouses needing to be rescued from beach erosion, or traded with another town's lighthouses, but the Three Sisters are safely away from the coastline now, in their own little park. They are teensy for what I thought of as a normal size for a lighthouse -- and very, very cute.

See what I mean?

This is a view of Nauset Lighthouse. Check out the red and white light pattern.

Red light!

Wait for it ...

Gotcha!

It was pretty cool.

A nice long weekend

We hadn't had a vacation in awhile, but recently we managed to squeeze in a few days in Cape Cod. It was a good time of year to be there, because it was right before all the summer crowds poured in, so prices for everything were a lot lower -- and the weather was basically pretty nice.

We stayed in a nice cottage bed and breakfast.


The owners of this cape live elsewhere in town, so guests have the run of the house. And there were no other guests besides us, so we had the entire place to ourselves. That was pretty sweet. It was very peaceful and nice to come "home" after a long day of tromping around to a quiet house.

It's hard to stay away from beaches on Cape Cod, and we did have some nice warm, summer days to walk on beaches and be amazed by sand dunes.


Of course, there are plenty of ways to enjoy a beach when the water is a bit too chilly for a full swim!


Very fun.

It's nice to get away sometimes!

The "walking" part of bus walking ...

I strolled up to my bus stop this morning, took one look at the traffic on the main road, and knew I wasn't getting a bus anytime soon.

What a mess! I mean yeah, there's always more traffic headed into town than out -- I have a "reverse commute" so my bus rides to work are usually smooth sailing -- but this was something different. The traffic was bumper to bumper, backed up for a mile, and with all the traffic lights on that road in addition to whatever else was going on -- road work, it looked like, nice timing dudes -- no one was moving.

My commute to work is only about three miles, and I'd walked two and a half of them before a bus rolled by.

Lucky it was a nice day. It would have been such a drag if it were raining out. I really hate getting soaked by rain on my way to work, because wet jeans are just no fun, you have to sit there at your desk with clammy denim against your skin and it takes forever to dry ... bleah.

But it was sunny out. So it was okay.

A new mid-day routine

One nice thing that happened recently is that the gym I belong to extended its hours, so that it's open weekdays during lunchtime -- around 11am to 1pm or so. The gym is just a short walk from where I work, so getting there's a breeze, but the only times I used to be able to get there were evenings, after work. Granted, they were also open in the early mornings, but ... well. I just don't do early morning exercise (where "early" is before eleven!).

So I've been working out four days a week, in the noon hour. It turns out, timing of exercise really does matter. I mean, I knew I couldn't handle it "first thing in the morning" (which for me is nowhere near as early as for most other people, I know), but I just figured it was because I'm not a morning person in general. But exercise after work was okay, I thought.

Well! I've discovered that the whole exercise in the middle of the day thing is really awesome! It breaks up my work day in a good way, it just gets me outta there for awhile, which is more beneficial than I'd fully realized, I think. Plus, for some reason my body is happier working out then than it is in the evenings, so it's all, "Hey, I can totally lift THAT weight, how about something heavier?" The exercise both wakes me up and relaxes me, so I end up feeling really loose and refreshed and good when I get back to work.

I knew it would be more convenient to work out in the middle of the day, but I am surprised and pleased by how good it feels.

Not to mention how totally RIPPED I am getting ...

Kettle Corn!!

So, yesterday was May Fair, which is one of my two favorite street fairs of the year. And as usual, it involved a lot of kettle corn. A lot.


We go for the large size bag, which is 28 inches long, and the guy scoops it so full of hot sweet popcorn that you can't even fasten it shut -- there's no choice but to start eating it immediately.

Yesterday's treats also included cupcakes (chocolate, carrot cake, and coconut), cookies, candy and curry (as well as potstickers, but that breaks the 'c' theme).